Referent Cognitions and Budgetary Fairness: A Research Note

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Libby

This study examines the effects of fairness in budgeting on individual performance in a nonparticipative budgeting setting. An experiment was conducted in which subjects performed a production task and were compensated under a budget-based incentive contract. Performance was lowest when an unfair budget target was assigned using an unfair budgeting process. When the budget target assigned was fair, the fairness or unfairness of the budgeting process had no effect on performance. When an unfair budget target was determined using a fair budgeting process, mean performance was not significantly different from mean performance of the subjects assigned fair budget targets. Implications of this result in assigning stretch targets are discussed.

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 588-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia L. Carboni

Government increasingly relies on complex arrangements of providers to deliver public services. There is burgeoning public administration literature on contract management and performance. This literature emphasizes contract management strategies such as contract design and ex post monitoring and relationship building to promote contractor performance. The literature does not examine effects of structural variables on contract performance in ex post contract markets, though work on interorganizational networks has long established that structural factors influence individual performance. This study examines the influence of structural variables on publicly funded contract performance in networked structures of exchange using 5 years of state-level contract data. Network concepts are used to develop contracts as networked exchange structures and develop measures of structural embeddedness for individual programs. Findings include that the structural embeddedness of individual programs influences individual contract performance on quality and cost dimensions over time.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Schwartz ◽  
Anna Balas ◽  
Arkadiusz Rojczyk

Acoustic phonetic studies examine the L1 of Polish speakers with professional level proficiency in English. The studies include two tasks, a production task carried out entirely in Polish and a phonetic code-switching task in which speakers insert target Polish words or phrases into an English carrier. Additionally, two phonetic parameters are studied: the oft-investigated VOT, as well as glottalization vs. sandhi linking of wordinitial vowels. In monolingual Polish mode, L2 interference was observed for the VOT parameter, but not for sandhi linking. It is suggested that this discrepancy may be related to the differing phonological status of the two phonetic parameters. In the code-switching tasks, VOTs were on the whole more English-like than in monolingual mode, but this appeared to be a matter of individual performance. An increase in the rate of sandhi linking in the code-switches, except for the case of one speaker, appeared to be a function of accelerated production of L1 target items.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Bohnet ◽  
Bruno S. Frey ◽  
Steffen Huck

Most contracts, whether between voters and politicians or between house owners and contractors, are incomplete. “More law,” it typically is assumed, increases the likelihood of contract performance by increasing the probability of enforcement and/or the cost of breach. We examine a contractual relationship in which the first mover has to decide whether she wants to enter a contract without knowing whether the second mover will perform. We analyze how contract enforceability affects individual performance for exogenous preferences. Then we apply a dynamic model of preference adaptation and find that economic incentives have a nonmonotonic effect on behavior. Individuals perform a contract when enforcement is strong or weak but not with medium enforcement probabilities: Trustworthiness is “crowded in” with weak and “crowded out” with medium enforcement. In a laboratory experiment we test our model’s implications and find support for the crowding prediction. Our finding is in line with the recent work on the role of contract enforcement and trust in formerly Communist countries.


1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Heery

Performance related pay (PRP) schemes, which link salary to the results of an individual performance assessment, have spread rapidly through the public services in recent years and are often regarded as indicators of a fundamental shift in the employment relationship. This article tests the latter claim by considering evidence on the purposes and effects of PRP in local government. It seeks to determine whether PRP represents a `return to contract' in public service employment, characterised by a precise specification and monitoring of the wage-work bargain by management. The conclusion is that, while some aspects of PRP conform to the contractual model others do not and the study attests to the ability of public sector organisations to absorb, deflect and modify new management techniques transposed from the private sector.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. Black ◽  
Andrew H. Newman ◽  
Bryan R. Stikeleather ◽  
Nathan J. Waddoups

ABSTRACT We investigate whether the type of performance feedback (individual versus relative) firms provide employees on one task alters employees' willingness to help other employees on a subsequent, unrelated task. Consistent with prior research, results from our experiment show that employees perform better on a production task when they receive relative performance feedback as opposed to individual performance feedback about the task. However, we document that the valence of RPI feedback appears to moderate the effect of RPI on subsequent helping behavior. Specifically, those who receive RPI feedback indicating that they performed (better) worse than another participant exhibit (lower) higher levels of helping behavior relative to those who receive only individual feedback. Our results highlight the complex tradeoffs confronting managers and management accountants when designing performance feedback systems and the need for them to consider employees' tasks holistically rather than in isolation when deciding what type of performance feedback to provide. JEL Classifications: C71; M41; J31. Data Availability: Available upon request.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (s1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald N. Guymon ◽  
Ramji Balakrishnan ◽  
Richard M. Tubbs

ABSTRACT: We extend Fisher et al. (2003) to investigate the effectiveness of a budget-based incentive contract to settings with alternate task characteristics.We first replicate their finding: when groups perform a task with an additive production function, a budget-based contract leads to higher levels of performance than a piece-rate contract. However, we do not find higher performance when we modify the task to be interdependent, arguably a key feature of group tasks. We also show that goal commitment mediates the incentive contract-performance relation for tasks with an additive production function. Collectively, these results suggest that variations in production technology influence the relative motivational effectiveness of different incentive plans.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3S) ◽  
pp. 638-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine F. J. Meijerink ◽  
Marieke Pronk ◽  
Sophia E. Kramer

Purpose The SUpport PRogram (SUPR) study was carried out in the context of a private academic partnership and is the first study to evaluate the long-term effects of a communication program (SUPR) for older hearing aid users and their communication partners on a large scale in a hearing aid dispensing setting. The purpose of this research note is to reflect on the lessons that we learned during the different development, implementation, and evaluation phases of the SUPR project. Procedure This research note describes the procedures that were followed during the different phases of the SUPR project and provides a critical discussion to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken. Conclusion This research note might provide researchers and intervention developers with useful insights as to how aural rehabilitation interventions, such as the SUPR, can be developed by incorporating the needs of the different stakeholders, evaluated by using a robust research design (including a large sample size and a longer term follow-up assessment), and implemented widely by collaborating with a private partner (hearing aid dispensing practice chain).


1972 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 852-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Zehel ◽  
Ralph L. Shelton ◽  
William B. Arndt ◽  
Virginia Wright ◽  
Mary Elbert

Fourteen children who misarticulated some phones of the /s/ phoneme were tape recorded articulating several lists of items involving /s/. The lists included the Mc-Donald Deep Test for /s/, three lists similar to McDonald’s but altered in broad context, and an /s/ sound production task. Scores from lists were correlated, compared for differences in means, or both. Item sets determined by immediate context were also compared for differences between means. All lists were found to be significantly correlated. The comparison of means indicated that both broad and immediate context were related to test result. The estimated “omega square” statistic was used to evaluate the percentage of test score variance attributable to context.


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